When Baller Stout was created, bourbon barrels were filled with Surly Darkness, Three Floyds Dark Lord, De Struise Black Albert, and Mikkeller Beer Geek Brunch. These were aged for 14 months separately and blended together to taste.

Beer: Reviews & Ratings

22oz bottle picked up from brew pub. Didn't flinch at the $50, just had to drink this BA Brew.

Let me start by saying that while this is touted as BA Baller stout. Its is not the same beer. What it is actually is all four of the Stouts that make up Baller Stout. Dark lord, Darkness, BG brunch and Black Albert. That were Barrel aged separately and then blended. Not Baller aged in barrels.

This is a complex brew. It's is Dark in appearance, very Dark. Solid thick head of tan goodness. Looks plain tasty!Bourbon smell off the bat, smells of rich chocolate, dark fruits, hint of coffee. This one you will notice you are smelling between every taste.

Take your first mouthful. Dobt sip the first one, better fill the pallet as its going to get active quickly. Taste the chocolate, the bourbon is there, some fruits and more chocolate cherry bourbon swirl. Truly a delight!

I really enjoy the creamy thick mouthfeel of this one. Big body especially compared to other bourbon feels. It's perfect.

This beer is top notch. It beats BCBS easy, smokes KBS( especially this years) and I would put this up there with any stout. It does fit my tastes perfectly. And I only wish I could get one fresh off a tap. Lots of complexity, but it blends terrificly.I was able to puck up a couple more and will have a hard time cellaring this beer.Sucks that is may never be made again! Can only hope the 20yr at FFF is comparable.Cheers (1,428 characters)

wow! wow! wow! i am impressed. i usually dont review anything unless i really like it or really hate it, after have a bottle of baller stout (murdad out is ba baller stout) i was pleasantly surprised to see how much better this one was, this is for sure in my top five of all time and i highly recommend. the only down side was price it was fifty dollars per bottle but it is def worth it, i live close to three floyds and ive had almost every year of dark lord which doesnt even compare to this beer. (501 characters)

I wish I had bought a case of these. My god. This is my favorite beer to date and I have had a lot of beers. There is literally nothing I could say wrong about it or would suggest to improve upon. Worth every penny. It has every good part that you taste in a good bourbon or whiskey and none of the bite. It finishes with cream and punch you in the mouth goodness. This is my favorite beer. (390 characters)

Poured pitch black. Inky, deathly, and murderous. It donned a brown cap and left its sticky resin in my Duvel tulip. Really big. There is a lot going on here and I don't even know where to start. Huge bourbon notes of caramel, vanilla, oak, and toffee. Lots of sweetness and malt. Bit of dates and black currants thrown in. Wonderfully blended and delicious. The body is sticky and sweet with a HUGE thickness. One of the thickest beers I've ever had. Velvety carbonation. Boozy and alcoholic finish that does not detract from the beer at all. I think this beer is absolutely fantastic and I highly recommend seeking it out. (664 characters)

A ~ Deep black coloring with a ring of dark foam. Some lacing, not sticky though...

S ~ Bourbon nose with a bit of espresso.

T ~ Soft feel with little harshness. Kinda reminds me of Rare? Rare with some sweetness and maple maybe, fantastic taste, I can barely put It down... The Bourbon is perfectly blended which is saying something for a beer that's a collaboration already.

M ~ Nice feel, not to sticky.

O ~ Only thing I didn't like about this beer is how difficult it was to score one. Fantastic taste, this is a quality brew. My favorite FFF offering yet (I know, it's a collab but still). (662 characters)

This is my first review on BA, and this beer DESERVES to be the first! I thought I had spoiled myself with BCS & variants this holiday season, but this just took the cake ringing in the New Year! This beer was WONDERFUL! It hit so high on every note! A lot of mouthfeel, had a dark chocolate color, with great tan head, and a lot of complexity going on with the taste; chocolates, coffee?, roasty... This is the best stout I've had yet. Overall this beer was like a Baller Stout kicked way up! Aging the others for the years to come! (533 characters)

Reviewing Murda'd Out Stout, a bourbon barrel aged stout collaboration between Three Floyds Brewing Company out of Munster, Indiana (Dark Lord), Surly Brewing Company out of Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, De Struise Brouwers out of Belgium, and Mikkeller out of Denmark. This beer is not "Barrel Aged Baller Stout." Rather, the components beers were individually barrel aged before blending.

Score: 98

January 2013 vintage bottle served in a stemmed Mikkeller "The Original" taster glass and enjoyed on 06/02/14.

Appearance: Pours an inky black color with a thin layer of tan head that settles to a bubbly ring around the glass. Poor lacing, okay retention. Nice legs and browning/tanning of the side of the glass from swirling. 4.5/5

Overall: Who said this beer was falling off? It is still drinking like a champ. This beer is just as good as Bourbon Barrel Aged Dark Lord, and is one of the better barrel aged stouts out there (and it was priced accordingly). I would love to acquire another if the opportunity presents itself.

Fantastic beer! It had a slight smell of chocolate and cherries. The barrel flavor did not overpower the other flavors as it can in other barrel aged beers. If the beer was just a slight bit thicker, I would have given it a 5 for mouthfeel and appearance and a 5 overall. This one was great and I'd love to try it again. (320 characters)

I am from near the Three Floyds Brewery, but now live and work in Germany. When I traveled home recently and visited 3F (as I always do) I was very pleasantly surprised to see them offering limited release barrel aged beers. I was lucky to have the chance to buy this and other beers that day.

I asked how long to age it and they said "It's ready NOW. It's all there." So, we opened it forthwith!

Pours black as death like my favorite BAs with that rare dark head.

The smell is so thick. A sticky sweetness that makes a lot of promises for flavor.

Taste exceeds expectation: raisins, cherries, dates, molasses, and brown sugar abound in this very full-bodied brew. You don't have to be a cicerone to detect the forward flavors here.

For now, this is the best beer I've ever had. It will be a long time before I have better. I look forward to it! (851 characters)

T: Chocolate, Coconut, and dark fruits strong up front, with some smoke. Dark fruits get bigger and bigger, while the other flavors fade into barrel, except for the chocolate which starts to grow into almost bitter cocoa powder. Bourbon starts to rise as the mouthfeel warms up, and some fig and booze lift the tongue up through the finish. Superb.

M: Heavy, but still smooth and silky. Reminds me of KBS.

O: Perfect. Just, perfect. Didn't expect to get so much cocoa butter out of this - definitely not a one dimensional barrel-bomb. 10/10. Kudos FFF. . (813 characters)

Thick and robust. Dark Lord and Darkness show the way. No way I could pick out Black Albert or Weasel, although they are two exquisite beers. Rich and full bodied. Sweet booze countered by roasted malt and bitter chocolates.

Full bodied with moderately low carbonation. A touch of hop bitterness in the finish.

Overall, this was fantastic. I'm going to thoroughly enjoy closing out a great evening with the second half of this bottle. Terrific. (620 characters)

T: Enormous barrel aging here. Do NOT have this as your main course. This is a dessert beer through and through. Hell, I even burped sweet cherries and coconut bourbon. Seriously, the only one I got was "Dark Lord" with Darkness, Black Albert, and Brunch Weasel playing deep, deep, deep background.

M: Snot-like, and to be honest, the sweetness wasn't as cutting as I thought it was going to be upon first sniff, however, this was pitch perfect on the carbonation and thickness feel.

O: I paid $50 for this at the brewery, therefore, if you have one of these, please bide your time and consider this an "event" beer. As for me, I thought it was worth the money as a one time shot. (1,092 characters)

Folks, we've got a monster on our hands! The incredible fusion of some of the best masterminds in the stout-brewing industry results in the perfect blend of all things that are best about stouts.

Simply and purely black, the beer is predictably opaque and extremely dense to the eye. Its milkshake-like consistency slowly releases a thick and creamy, mocha-whipped foam that retains well and laces fairly- its obvious that the sheer strength and age has compromised its foam character a little.

Flavors are equally as refined and melded. Roasted malts provide silky espresso taste with earthy bitterness. Supporting sweetness is strong with burnt toffee, caramel, molasses, and chocolate. And then the savory flavors occur and carry the beer into finish with mouthwatering succulence. Umami-rich sherry and port meets caramelized grains and aged nuances in ways that are normally reserved for dopplebocks. Earthy flavors of wood alcohol, ripe tobacco, and red wine vinous-ness, weave into the beer's complex taste and offer surprises with every sip.

Its robust textures engulf the mouth with viscous weight and a little cocoa grit. Potent alcohols slice through the residual malts and warm the palate and offer up slight dryness. Finishing malty-sweet, the beer celebrates its flavor with infinite aftertaste.

The deliberate cellaring of each beer of the blend and its ultimate coming together is proof in taste that the whole is indeed greater than the sum of the parts. Simply put- beers just don't get better! (1,804 characters)

22oz bomber with red wax shared at the whale tasting 7/13/2013, poured into a BCBS snifter.

This beer smells quite a bit sweet, with a ton of different flavours. If you spend enough time you might pick them out, but I mostly got bourbon, a bit of coffee, lots of chocolate (the bitter dark kind), sweet malty caramel with a little bit of barrel. It pours pretty much pitch black like the other big imperial stouts at the tasting. Not much more than a minimal brown head that fades into a pitch black, very placid brew.

Flavourwise it is fairly sweet but not overly unbalanced sweet like Dark Lord. It's chocolate molasses with a bit of coffee and vanilla.. highlighted by sweet bourbon. The oak comes out more here than in the nose. Pretty complex, and as I said above if I spent more time sousing out the different flavours, there's probably more in there.

This beer was full bodied, but not as thick as Rare or Vanilla Bean DL. That being said, it was still very thick. Standard carbonation for the style, and drinks smoothly. There's a bit of heat in this beer which isn't unexpected. Aftertaste is mostly a molasses + sweet bourbon combo.

I would say this beer is worth shelling out $50 with some friends to try out. I'd rather spend that money on something else like Rare or VBDL but cost aside, this is a friggin' fantastic BA stout. Everything seems to be present and complementing each other well including the barrel. I think it could go with a little bit less heat and a little more body. But who am I to be asking for more when this beer pretty much delivers on all counts?

Re-review: Generously opened up by Doug today at our celebratory whale tasting, 3/22/2014. Poured into a Three Floyds teku glass. Drank this one just right before we opened up a 2012 Bourbon Barrel-Aged Dark Lord. Basically, this beer's appearance is pretty much unchanged, pours with a minimal half finger brown head with little retention. The smell is JUST like the BADL- especially the barrel vanilla contribution- except with a bit more of charred malts and dark fruit, likely from the BA Black Albert contribution. And the flavour is very similar to BADL- very sugary sweet but with a nice port-like sweetness and charred roast malt character that cuts that particular sweetness, with an incredible barrel vanilla contribution similar to the BADL. Mouthfeel is impeccable, zero ABV heat and very chewy. Overall, I think this beer has done well over the last 15 months, and if you have any, consider drinking it soon. It's hard to imagine how it could be any better with more age, but it's not entirely out of the question. Also, if I had the choice between obtaining this beer vs the '12 BADL, I would go for this one 10 times out of 10. (2,733 characters)

If you have had the baller you pretty much had this...very delicious but im not getting enough of the barrel aged flavor out of this one. I expected more for $50. Dont get me wrong this is absolutely delicious but I would just buy the $30 bottle of the regular baller stout. (274 characters)

Bottle from MeadMe, HUGE thanks for sending it my way so I could share it with the Tasters Choice group!Pours a thick viscous black color with a smallish tan head that dissipates quickly. Huge rich malty aromas of brown sugar, caramel, molasses, coffee, dark chocolate, light wood and hints of bourbon, light fruit and smoke. Huge complex nose that I could park my nostrils over all night. The flavor is richly complex like the aroma suggested. Huge sweet sugary maltiness as a base to a bit of chocolate and roasted grains set in some bourbon oak and lightly smokey with touches of fruit and earth. Medium to thick body with a light level of carbonation. Fantastic frigging beer right here! If I weren't driving sat night I would have seriously Bogart-ed this bottle! (769 characters)

Purchased a bomber of this brew at the Three Floyds Brewery for a hefty price.

Appearance: Dark, very dark. The pour produced a slight half finger of head which had a dark red color to it. Head retained well and slowly crept down the glass.

Smell: Strong bourbon barreled presence is in the aroma. Dark fruit aroma creeps through which surprisingly mixed pretty well with the bourbon accents.

Taste: WOW, no doubt a potent stout. My guess on the ABV has to be around 15-16%. While the high alcohol content is there, plenty else is happening with this brew. A cherry, fruity flavor is accompanied by the creamy bourbon presence. A strong body to this beer but I honestly expected it to be a bit heavier. No doubt that this is an absolute treat though.

Mouthfeel: One of my favorite aspects of this beer. Creamy texture covers the palette and sticks to your touch whether you like it or not. Smooth mouthfeel despite high ABV.

Overall: A really wonderful stout. I wouldn't put it with a KBS or some of the Bourbon County products but it is certainly not far off. The hefty price tag for this beer made the expectations for this beer very high and I would say they were met, not exceeded. Glad I gave this beer a try or I would forever wish I had gave it a shot, not knowing if the opportunity to try it again would arise. (1,328 characters)

Last beer consumed at our 3 Floyds beer dinner. Big thanks to Sean for picking this up for me at the brewpub. Paired with Dark Lord chocolate cake. Served in my BCS snifter.

A - A quarter-finger of tan foam settles to wisps, thin collar, and minimal lacing. Opaque black body, with some bubbles visibly adhering to the sides of the glass.

S - Big oak, loads of vanilla, moderate bourbon, big dark chocolate, light roast and coffee. Still a tad rough, but pretty delicious. The Beer Geek Brunch Weasel component is probably the only one with any clarity to it, as the bourbon barrels have dominated on the whole.

T - The taste is much smoother and rounded out, with more balance between sweet malts, oak, and bourbon flavors. Loads of vanilla, chocolate, cake, caramel, molasses, and light coffee and dark fruit flavors. I think the Darkness and Dark Lord come out a bit more here, but the barrel-aging balances the excessive sweetness in both (particularly without the former's hoppiness). Booze is much better hidden, and the finish is surprisingly crisp and clean for such a massive beer.

M - Medium-full body, with lower carbonation. Smooth, creamy, and viscous body, with some barrel tannins and dryness in the finish. Again, fairly tame relative to the aroma and some of the base beers.

D - A superb barrel-aged stout. Is it worth $50? Perhaps as a special treat; I certainly wish I had a few more bottles around in the cellar for down the road, as I think the aroma will mellow a bit more in time. I think I could put down an entire bottle of this on my own, although I'd probably end up with a raucous hangover. (1,623 characters)

Pours an opaque black with a foamy khaki head that settles to a partial film on top of the beer. Small dots of lace form around the glass on the drink down. Smell is of dark roasted malt, cocoa, vanilla, bourbon, and wood aromas. Taste is much the same with cocoa, chocolate syrup, vanilla, and bourbon flavors on the finish. There is a mild amount of roast bitterness on the palate with each sip. This beer has a lower level of carbonation with a slightly crisp and medium bodied mouthfeel. Overall, this is a very good beer with fantastic barrel aged qualities in the smell and taste.

Brought to you by Dennoman at the big DL lineup a few weeks back. I barely even remember this one, but luckily I took surprisingly detailed notes on it. Way more detailed than I remember doing. I must have been in great shape still.

From a 750 into a snifter

APPEARANCE: Pours out thicker than the Dark Lord variants, relatively viscous and black but not quite pitch black, yielding a smaller, medium looking, fluffy, light mocha head with good retention. Black body with no carbonatino evident. Head fades to a small, swirly wisp and ring but leaves no real lacing down the glass. Pretty good looking stout.

SMELL: Lots of bourbon on the nose, with oak, vanilla, coconut and caramel as well. Light roasted aroma with some dark chocolate combine with some milk chocolate and sweet cream from the bourbon barrel. Pretty bold with a good balance between the base blend and bourbon barrel. Really good.

TASTE: Lots of barrel again, with piles of bourbon, oak, vanilla, sweet cream and caramel sweetness with a hint or bitter roasted flavors at the swallow. Bold and unrelenting aftertaste of bourbon barrel, lightly roasted and burnt malts with some bitter dark chocolate as well. The oak and sweet vanilla cream flavors from the boozy bourbon barrel work well with the roasted and bitter base beer. Actually surprisingly good and well integrated.

PALATE: Medium body and medium carbonation. Enough weight for the style, creamy enough as well, goes down fine and finishes slightly sticky. A burst of heat lingers on the palate as well. A touch hot perhaps, but definitely big and smooth enough to support the flavors.

OVERALL: I must have liked this beer way more than I can remember. Luckily I can still read my scrawl as well. This was much better than I'd expected. The bourbon barrel works really well with the base stout, making a big statement but still showing excellent balance as well. The feel could perhaps be a touch bigger, which would give the flavors the support they need for top marks, but given the style, this is a minor complaint. Come to think of it, given how much I actually liked the bourbon DL versions, I guess it's not such a surprise that I enjoyed this so much. On the whole, I'm a pretty big fan of the four base beers. Thanks again Dennoman! This was a beauty. (2,299 characters)

T- Sweet almost caramel mixed with vanilla bourbon, cocoa with a hint of bitterness, finishes with rich dark fudge and some oak. Nicely balanced with an extremely nice barrel presence.

M- Full bodied being a bit on the thicker side, fairly low carbonation which is nice for the style, overall very nice for style.

O- This beer proves how great Three Floyd's is at barrel aging. I wasn't a huge fan of the regular Baller Stout but this beer took it to a whole new level bringing out a nice sweet bourbon presence balanced with a thick rich fudge aspect. Easily the best beer we had during our tasting (although the only barrel aged one). I definitely recommend checking this one out if you ever get the chance. (1,218 characters)